Crossing Paths
by knickalah
Summary: beginning of love story featuring Aang, Katara, Toph and Zuko. Toaang Zutara


It was three months after the War had ended. Aang had been travelling around the world celebrating, however Katara had not seen him in several weeks. He was finally coming to stay with Katara for a week before continuing his travels.

Katara woke up bright and early as usual. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, everything seemed so happy. She had been waiting for this day for a while, as nothing seemed that same without him.

When Aang arrived, Katara ran over to him and they hugged. This is what she had been waiting for, but it didn't feel like what she expected. Katara thought she would warm and comfortable, but instead it was bland and boring.

"I missed you" Aang whispered, and held her tighter. "Its not the same not seeing you everyday like we used to." He seemed to miss her a lot, but she wished she could feel the same way.

"Me too" Katara replied. She thought this is what she wanted, but it was nothing like she had planned. Aang was staying for a week, so maybe after a few days she would feel more comfortable.

"I spoke to Toph yesterday and she was thinking of possibly coming around tomorrow, to make it more like a group reunion. Sokka and Suki are on holiday together and I didn't want to interrupt their trip. And Zuko said he might cancel some meetings."

That was a relief. Maybe some other people around might help. Katara thought that it might be more comfortable with another girl around and it would be nice to see Zuko again.

Together, Aang and Katara spent the rest of the afternoon and night talking about their experiences in the past few weeks. Aang was talking about how many people knew of him. "I didn't even know there were that many people in the world! They all asked about you as well." Aang blushed.

"What did they say?" she responded, with more interest.

"Some people from the water tribe wanted you as their teacher. They all wanted to meet you."

"I was planning a trip to go back and visit the Southern Water Tribe sometime soon. I haven't seen them since . . . well since Sokka and I discovered you"

"Wow that's a long time"

Aang and Katara stayed up half the night talking, but wished they didn't. The next day Toph arrived bright and early. Usually Katara was used to being awake early except after their late night, they completely forgot she was coming. "Get up sleepy heads. Sleep at night, now get up before you end up in a deep hole!"

"Toph!" Katara was more excited for Toph than she had felt for Aang. Katara ran up and hugged her.

"Enough, I'm still willing to throw you in that hole. HEAR THAT TWINKLE TOES!" Aang jumped up before he could even think.

"Toph!" He went up to hug her, and surprisingly she accepted. Katara observed, wishing you could be in that position.

"I missed you both too. I can't believe it's been so long!"

The three of them spent the rest of the morning talking about their travels and how different their life had become. Katara noticed that Toph seemed different, as if she was happier. She also noticed that Toph was more into Aang than she had been in the past.

This continued until lunch, where another guest arrived. Over the mountains came a large hot air balloon, with a fire nation symbol on it.

Zuko!" Aang scremed. Zuko was smiling. Even though he was now the Fire Lord, he didn't look any different to what he had three months ago.

Zuko landed the hot air balloon and jumped out as fast as he could. "Thanks for inviting me. It was hard to make sure that there was no guards following me, but I think they eventually gave up. Its been so long"

Katara suddenly felt alive. Her deep blue eyes began to have life in them. Toph could feel Katara's heart racing, and knew something was up. She couldn't take her eyes off him. Zuko seemed more than a friend than ever before, so calm and welcoming.

"Katara, is that really you? You look so much more grown up that before." He offered a hug, even though it was a little bit awkward. Katara accepted, and her heart began to race even more. She ended up blushing and turned completely red. Of course, Toph could sense all of this but decided not to say anything yet. How could Zuko be so relaxed about it?

Zuko joined in their original discussion of everyones travels for about an hour. Then Zuko and Aang went off to practice Fire Bending. Zuko thought that Aang still had not mastered fire yet and a training session would do him good. This left the two girls to chat amongst themselves.

For a minute, it was silent. Katara was thinking whether to tell Toph about her situation with the two boys or not, while Toph was thinking whether to tell Katara about what she had felt between Katara and Zuko.


End file.
